Far East Cynic

Dilbert kind of sums up mine………

And now, its off to catch a plane! I have the kind of month I like for this next month anyway-week gone, one week home, one week gone, repeat for two more cycles. Too bad its all domestic travel however.

Later, let me tell you about “The hunt for Lady Gaga!”

Stay tuned.

Ole Miss says the force is with them:

Ole Miss is in the middle of a movement to replace their old mascot — Colonel Reb — after the school decided they wanted to update their image.

Several pro-Ackbar websites have recently emerged — making the Admiral the heavy favorite. The University tells us the decision on the mascot is entirely in the hands of the student mascot committee. The University will hold a vote in the near future — we’ll keep you updated.

Read more here.

The S.O. was watching the Ski aerials tonight. And bitching about how many Chinese competitors there were were. I have to admit I was more than a little annoyed when the Chinese women won the short track-on a technicality and the Americans were forced to finish third.

Of course the S.O. can’t stop talking about Mao-chan. I have to admit she did really well-but I still think the Korean girl is probably going to clean her clock tomorrow night. ( The video of her performance was the top ranked You Tube video in Japan).

Speaking of diversions, I finally got a look at Kirsten Dunst video shot in Akihabara last year. I’ve been to that very street and am dying to go back again. (Warning-NFSW anime!):

On days like today-I wish I was (re) turning Japanese!

UPDATE! The cocksuckers people at You Tube have taken down two different versions of this video. Bastards!

Naval leadership casts the last vestige of its manhood down the toilet. Unsurprising, but disgusting  nonetheless:

The Pentagon on Monday notified Congress that women will be able to join submarine crews within 30 legislative working days, making good on the wishes of top Navy commanders announced last fall.

As required by law, Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent a letter to legislative leaders announcing the Navy’s plan to lift its ban on female submariners, giving the House and Senate time to absorb the decision and, if members want, to take action. Congress can pass a law forbidding integration, requiring the Navy to wait or perform a study. If it does nothing, as expected, the ban will expire around the end of April.

Reason number 327 why I am glad I came of age when I did. Serving in all male units was an honor and a privilege-and a lot more fun. Sorry if that bothers some women readers-sue me. There is an order to the universe and women on subs is not in it.

Nonetheless, it will be interesting to watch this all play out. We have seen this script before:

1) First women in submarine training will not be allowed to flunk out.

2) Surface warfare LCDR’s will be persuaded, cajoled, and offered bonuses to change designators. They will be rushed through submarine training and then assigned as department heads on SSBN’s.  No such late transition opportunities will exist for male officers.

3) Three years later, to the day, these same women LCDR’s will make Commander and a couple of them will be screened for command. Great hoopla and fanfare will accompany this announcement. Hordes of VIP’s will show up for the change of command and it will cited as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The Navy diversity industry will kick into high gear-and have ads showing ( a nice looking) woman at the periscope and on the bridge of a submarine.

4) Well before then-several cases of fraternization and rampant sexual activity on and off the boat will make the pages of Navy Times.  The question in the editorial pages, “So its ok for a man to suck a man’s dick, but not to have sex with a woman?” will be buried by the editors.

5) Seven years after first women make Submarine CO, first female ( and hopefully African American and lesbian) woman submariner will be selected for flag. Several well deserving men who worked 24-27 years for the same chance will retire due to non-selection.

6) USS (Fill in the blank name of Virginia class submarine) runs aground entering Hampton Roads harbor. Woman CO is relieved for cause, then re-assigned to command (fill in the blank for out of the way Naval Station).  Male counterpart fired for failing an Operational Reactor Safeguards exam is forcibly retired 3 months after being fired.  “A great victory for equality”

Repeat.

Welcome to the brave new world. You can have it!

Today was simply a glorious day weather-wise. The day was beautiful and temperatures where in the high 50′s. As a result I persuaded the S.O. that golf was in order today. For both of us not having played in four months-we actually did pretty well.

However, to engineer that little feat-I had to pay the piper up front. ( Too bad she never seems to grasp that concept in reverse -e.g. if you want the nice earrings maybe some sexual yoga might be in order……). Accordingly, we had to get all errands done on Saturday and that included a stop at, where else but Costco.

We bought the foodstuffs we needed and re-stocked some basic wines ( a subsequent stop being the store where the good wines are sold) and then, as fate would have it, I cam across this little gem in the DVD section.

As I looked at the box-and quickly discovered that it had every issue of National Geographic on six CD-ROM’s all for the low price of 32 dollars-well, I said to heck with it and tossed in in the cart. The S.O. gave me the raised eyebrow treatment-as in “what do we need this for?”- to which I responded that this was not up for negotiation, unless she was paying for the purchases today or would otherwise find a way to make not buying it worth my while. Of course she was disinclined to the latter option    , so home with us it went.

Its worth every penny. Once you load that software that comes on disk one-here are a few of the things it will allow you to do. It allows you to search by year in a very easy graphical format:

It also allows you to look at the various covers-month by month:

Now I might add-that this particular edition of the National Geographic (February of 1965) probably set me off on going to the Navy-as I can remember reading it at my grandmother’s house, where she had stacks and stacks of National Geographics on the shelves of her book cases. When ever we went down there in the months of 1966 and 1967-as a young boy of nine and 10, I can recall reading with awe about Operation Sea Orbit:

It is fascinating history. The program is very easy to navigate-and lets you see the pages of the magazine full sized on your computer monitor just as they looked in the magazine:

It has very easy to use search functions-like this search I conducted on “US Navy”:

You can zoom in on particular pictures and look closer at details. Take a look at what Hong Kong looked like in 1965:

It even has the maps and illustrations-like this full page on from the June 1965 edition showing me the aircraft of the USAF. I can remember being all of 9 years old reading this in person on my grandmother’s floor:

I guess it makes me a geek-but I thought it’s pretty cool

The Weather Underground: An extreme group dedicated to overturning the US government.

The Tea Baggers: An extreme group dedicated to overturning the US government.

Rachel Maddow may have hit on something here. I’m not really a fan of hers-but she is clever and usually well armed with facts.

By their swag you shall know them:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Because they still understand the meaning of the word satire.

Which is apparently, a word Sarah Palin learned , in any one of the six colleges she attended:

Mr. MacFarlane said in an e-mail message that “Family Guy” was proud of the way that the Ellen character was portrayed. “She is headstrong, outspoken and, at times, almost domineering,” he wrote. “The fact that she has Down syndrome was deliberately played as a secondary element to her character… ”
 
One person who supports the “Family Guy” staff in this latest debate is Andrea Fay Friedman, the 39-year-old actress and public speaker who provided the voice of Ellen in that episode.
 
In an e-mail message sent to The New York Times, Ms. Friedman wrote, “I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor.” She added that in her family, “we think laughing is good,” and that she was raised by her parents “to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life.”

Ms. Friedman continued, “My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Ms. Friedman, who has also appeared in television shows like “Life Goes On” and “Saving Grace,” said she was perplexed by Ms. Palin’s criticism.

“I’m like, ‘I’m not Trig. This is my life,’ ” Ms. Friedman said. “I was making fun of Sarah Palin, but not her son.”

The irony here is just great.

I was at lunch with a co-worker yesterday. As it happened I was eating an oyster Po-boy sandwich when Tiger woods speech came on the television in the restaurant / bar we were eating at.

The sound was turned down but it sure seemed like it went on for a hell of a lot longer than it should have gone.

I still feel that Tiger should confine his “apology” to just three words: LICK MY ASS!

Tiger Woods has the misfortune to be living in the wrong country-had this been Europe, there would have a polite “ho hum” when it was revealed that he had a mistress or two-and then all would have gotten on with more important pursuits.

But not here-here where sexual hypocrisy is the rule of the day-Tiger has to grovel on TV. And we still have never gotten the answer to the most burning question of this affair-what was Mrs. Woods doing to hack the program at home?

Repeat after me, everyone. “You. Can’t. Be. Addicted. To. A. Biological. Imperative.” It just isn’t done.

Have you ever heard somebody complain that they’re taking too much air for their own good? Same principle applies.

By the way, if you honestly believe that you’re addicted to pussy, you can save yourself five weeks and forty thousand dollars by slamming a car door on your penis. That’s sure to work, certainly better than Cunt Rehab with Dr. Fucking Drew will. 

Here is what Tiger should have said.

H/T to my Canadian Counterpart!

Can still smell bad………….

Say goodbye to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Effective Sept. 1, the war in Iraq will acquire a new official moniker: “Operation New Dawn.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the move Wednesday in a memo to Gen. David Petraeus, chief of U.S. Central Command, that was first reported by ABC News.

In the brief, one-paragraph memo, a copy of which also went to Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gates said the name change is designed to coincide with “the change of mission for U.S. forces in Iraq.”

There are 98000 troops in Iraq as of today. We are told it will drop to 50000 by August. However thanks to the surge in Afghanistan-the over all numbers of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines deployed to worthless Muslim countries is still about the same if not actually higher when you throw in what is in the rest of the AOR.

One American is still getting killed about every 10 days in Iraq. In Afghanistan the number is averaging about 1 per day-and has held at the ratio for some time.

And at the end of the day-Iraq is still a pretty messed up place. Seven years to get right back where we started is hardly a great accomplishment.

But it has a new name. Same stinking Arabs though…………..

Haven’t been able to post so much in the last couple of days. I’ve been tied up in the Alternate Universe-where its not so fun:

But hopefully, I will be able to bridge the gap-starting tomorrow!

I have been thinking about what life in the alternate universe is like-for example in the alternate United States where people actually thought about fixing the country’s problems. Take for example what it could do if it really wanted to fix the debt problem-instead of just giving lip service to it:

1. Substantial cuts in spending. Ensure that the commission is as much about shrinking government as raising revenue. My personal favorite would be to raise the age of eligibility for Social Security and Medicare. Do it gradually but substantially. Then index it to life expectancy, as it should have been from the beginning.

Leaving both Iraq and Afghanistan would be a good way to get head start on item 1.

But then we live in the other universe-where no one realizes it is possible.

To kick the shit out of teams from countries who deserve it.

Thus-this news brought a big smile to my face:

VANCOUVER : A rampant United States hammered China 12-1 on Sunday to make it a miserable start to the Year of the Tiger for the Asian team as the world champions made a powerful statement of intent in their bid to regain Olympic gold.

Veteran Jenny Potter scored a hat-trick and Meghan Duggan grabbed a brace as the US threatened early on to break the Games record set just hours earlier by fierce rivals and two-time defending champions Canada, who annihilated Slovakia 18-0 on Saturday.

As US Vice-President Joe Biden looked on, the Americans pounded the Chinese goal from the outset, notching 61 shots on goal to just seven in reply but their rate of scoring slowed after a five-goal blitz in the opening period of the Group B clash.

Now granted this is women’s hockey,  and this is China-so on several fronts,  its not exactly the moral equivalent of beating the Soviet Union 20 years ago.

But it is the start of the Chinese New Year-and anything that puts a bad start on that event for the stinking Chinese commie bastards Chinese nation-is a pretty good thing if you ask me.

Happy manufactured holiday!

What we all are really waiting for:

A  female co-worker was over in our little corner of cubeville a couple of days ago. She asked me “why are you so obsessed with Asia?  What’s so great about it? I was in Korea once and I hated it!” ( I make no secret of my passion to return to Asia.)

“Where did you go?”

“Seoul and Osan”.

” And you couldn’t find anything good to do in Seoul? Clearly you were not going to the right places.”

” Well how about you-what is it you like about it so much?”

The conversation went on for some time-since she was female, I had to dance around the number 1 reason(s)-the women-and point out to her innocuous things like the excitement, good transportation,  places to see, the hustle and bustle. And finally I gave her the reason that always seems to baffle the unaware, of which there are lot of Alabama:

“Because when you are there as a Gaijin man-you are unique. And that is worth any amount of being in Alabama.”

It went over her head-just as I expected it to. ” Well there is lots to do here in Alabama!”

“Maybe-but its all relative, now isn’t it? There’s a lot of things I want to do that I can’t do in Alabama-and there are things I can do here. But here the mudane things are just mundane and there they were not. Get it? No, I didn’t think you would.”

I think I will go back and show her this quote from Lola.  It ought to really set her head on fire:

There are two types of people-those who understand and those who don’t. Those who understand Lola’s frustration can smile and shake their heads knowingly. Those who don’t understand-never will.

Star Trek is coming true in our life time.

Well-not the spaceships part-which really gripes me.

But the lasers part is:

What you are seeing in that target is the Airborne Laser Platform-a converted 747-engaging a real missile with a laser beam. And destroying it. Not with a missile or a bullet, but with phased light in a coherent beam.

At 8:44 p.m. (PST), February 11, 2010, a short-range threat-representative ballistic missile was launched from an at-sea mobile launch platform. Within seconds, the ALTB used onboard sensors to detect the boosting missile and used a low-energy laser to track the target. The ALTB then fired a second low-energy laser to measure and compensate for atmospheric disturbance. Finally, the ALTB fired its megawatt-class High Energy Laser, heating the boosting ballistic missile to critical structural failure. The entire engagement occurred within two minutes of the target missile launch, while its rocket motors were still thrusting.

This was the first directed energy lethal intercept demonstration against a liquid-fuel boosting ballistic missile target from an airborne platform. The revolutionary use of directed energy is very attractive for missile defense, with the potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light, at a range of hundreds of kilometers, and at a low cost per intercept attempt compared to current technologies.

Less than one hour later, a second solid fuel short-range missile was launched from a ground location on San Nicolas Island, Calif. and the ALTB successfully engaged the boosting target with its High Energy Laser, met all its test criteria, and terminated lasing prior to destroying the second target. The ALTB destroyed a solid fuel missile, identical to the second target, in flight on February 3, 2010.

This is a big deal-if for no other reason than the technology it represents.

Who knows what’s next?

To me. I summed it up four years ago.